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The Fracture of an Illusion: Science and the Dissolution of Religion — Frankfurt Templeton Lectures 2008: 20
Author(s): Pascal Boyer (Author), Thomas M. Schmidt (Editor), Michael G. Parker (Editor), Wolfgang Achtner (Afterword)
- Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co KG
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 2021
- Language: English
- Print length: 112 pages
- ISBN-10: 9783525569405
- ISBN-13: 9783525569405
Book Description
Pascal Boyer argues that religion is largely an illusion. The anthropologist traces religion’s cognitive and evolutionary aspects. By “religion” he means a kind of existential and cognitive “package” that includes views about supernatural agency (gods), notions of morality, particular rituals and sometimes particular experiences, as well as membership in a particular community of believers. The package, however, does not really exist as such. Notions of supernatural agents, of morality, of ethnic identity, or ritual requirements and other experience, all appear in human minds independently. This implies that there is no such thing as a conflict between science and religion. Boyer takes the reader onto a journey through science and the dissolution of religion.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Pascal Boyer, PhD, ist Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory an der Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Er ist Psychologe, Anthropologe und Religionsphilosoph und hat Forschungsstellen an verschiedenen Universitäten weltweit.
Dr. phil. Thomas M. Schmidt is Professor of Religious Philosophy at the Department of Catholic Theology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.
Michael G. Parker, PhD, is a philosopher of religion in Frankfurt.
Dr. theol. Wolfgang Achtner ist Privatdozent fÔr Theologie und Naturwissenschaft an der Universität GieÃen und der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Er ist BegrÔnder und Direktor des Transscientia Instituts fÔr Interdisziplinäre Wissenschaftsentwicklung, Philosophie und Religion.
